Day 2; Friday, 13 February 1998 --
-- 10th Annual WOS Conference, Mt. Vernon, Skagit Co., Washington --

A windy blustery but rainless day across much of the Skagit area for the
various field trips (Skagit/Sammish Flats, North Whidby Island, and the
Deception Pass boat trip), but those windy conditions were often localized to
the more exposed areas while protected areas were quite calm and pleasant.

Highlights:

Deception Pass boat trip (40 species) -- afternoon half-day -- most of the
usual expected waterbirds and a spectacular ride through the Pass and
environs. I look forward to this trip on Day 4 (Sunday) and I think that
there may still be room to sign up. So, you day trippers coming up for
tonights banquet, be sure to check at the registration desk if interested.

Skagit/Sammish (? species) -- Gryfalcon, Peregrine, Prairie Falcon, 'Harlan's'
Hawk (2), Black-crowned Night Heron, Harris's, White-throated, and American
Tree Sparrow, but 'no' sign (yet) of the Green-tailed Towhee.

North Whidby Island (75 species) -- Nothing unusual (I went on this one), but
a great experience observing the loon action at the top of the outgoing tide
at Deception Pass -- a hundred or more mostly Red-throated Loons repeatedly
flying inbound and riding out on the current. Timing is everything here and
the bird action here is definitely a worthy event to observe. The time to be
there is 30 minutes before high tide then for an hour or so afterwards. There
was an impressive collection of ~25 Black Oystercatchers massed on the near-
shore rocks here. Also around the area everyone had great opportunities to
see Harlequin and Long-tailed (Oldsquaw) Ducks, and all three scoters at
various stops, and a great mass of Black Turnstones and Surfbirds at
Coupeville.

One of the special highlights of this trip was having guided access and an
opportunity to visit the usually closed to the public, Whidby Island Naval Air
Station (NAS). Our leader, Matt Klope, the civilian biologist there for the
past 9 years has done great things with this area which maintains it's
'uniqueness' thanks to and the cooperation of the U.S. Navy -- very
impressive. He is also a leading force in the Bird Air Strikes deterrence and
avoidance program here. It doesn't take much imagination, especially here to
understand how important this is to the installation, the birdlife, and the
safety to personnel and aircraft. The NAS Whidby Island bird checklist
publication is one of the most attractive and well done checklists that I have
ever seen anywhere which is the result of the partnership between the U.S.
Navy and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Now *this* is the way a
useful checklist should be done! Well... I'm impressed!!

Owl-prowl (day 1, Thurs) -- 2 Saw-whets, only because they were stake-outs.
Otherwise, it was the 'blow-out' as I expected. No report yet from last night
(day 2) yet which offered much better conditions and was generally windless.

The evening post-dinner speaker was Dr. Fred Cooke (Simon Frasier University,
Burnaby, BC) with a slide and video presentation on his work with Harlequin
Ducks around the SW BC coast wintering areas and interior nesting areas. A
few points of interest was the amount of time these birds actually spend
actively feeding per day (8-9 hours -- that's a lot when you stop and think
about it!) and only by daylight but are inactive at night. Also, the
Harlequin Duck is one of those species of waterfowl which pair bonds for life
I believe Dr. Cooke said and during the time of molt, the males and females
separate to complete the molt process then reunite afterwards. The pair
bonding takes place in early to mid-winter followed by migration (together)
away from the coast in Spring to the breeding areas along clean white water
streams far away in the interior as far away as Jasper and Banff National
Parks, BC/Alberta. These streams have to be just right and contain clean
rapid and turbulent white water, exposed rocks in the middle for roosting and
resting, and sufficient cover on the banks for nesting -- all these 'perfect'
conditions found together are far less common than one might otherwise
superficially think. I also found it quite interesting and in fact disturbing
to learn that the 'relic' and disjunct population in eastern Canada has been
in a steady and drastic decline for the past 20 years for reasons not at all
certain. The western Canada (and Washington) and Alaskan populations are
still doing well but show a declining trend as well.

Richard Rowlett (Pagodroma at aol.com)
(LIVE! -- from the 10th Annual WOS Conference, Mt. Vernon, WA)